World History Homework Three Answers - Student Eighteen

World History Homework Three
Instructor: Andy Schlafly
Read the lecture.
You can substitute in a question from honors into your regular assignment, if you are not in honors. You can also substitute in a question raised from class or the lecture.
1. Which do you like better, classical India or China, and why?
I liked classical China because their history interests me more, and also the classical Chinese had many great inventions. The Chinese mythology is interesting.

Superb.

2. What advantage did Buddhism have over Hinduism in converting people outside of India?
For one thing, Hindus believed in the caste system, and when you are a peasant it is hard to accept that it is your fault that you have to rake manure for a living. Also, Buddhism had the help of the Silk Road.

Right. Excellent point about the Silk Road, which I'll use in the model answers!

3. Explain what this is:
This is a yin and yang symbol. It symbolizes the struggle, or harmony, between masculinity and femininity.

Very good.

4. What aspect or aspects of Hinduism have enabled it to survive for so long?
Their ability to mix their religion with other religions, to adapt and accept other religions, has enabled the Hindus’ religion to survive for millennia. For instance, although some Hindus accept that there was a Christ, they still believe that there were multiple gods.
I also think that the Caste System influenced the society and politics of the country so that it would be harder to break away from Hinduism. 

Excellent.

5. Describe and explain one or more of your favorite insights by Sun Tzu.
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”
By this, Sun Tzu means that you cannot go to war without stategy, which is your overlying plan for the war, yet you cannot go to war without tactics, which is your plan for the individual battle. So if you have a very good plan for a battle but then you have a very bad plan of where to invade and when to invade you will lose the war. 

7. Current events question (choose "a" or "b"):
(b) The Silk Road established and developed during the Han dynasty was similar in some ways to the internet today.
The Silk Road was a bustling road of commerce and information, as is the internet. Both connect/ed different cultures, and bring/ brought new ideas together.

Excellent!

Honors Questions (answer any 3 in addition to the above questions)

H2. Some question whether Confucianism is really a religion. What is your view? I believe that Confucianism was more of a philosophy or a belief system. Instead of a religion, for one thing, there is no Confucian god. Also it is possible to be a Confucian but also be Buddhist.

Right.

H3. How do you think the major belief systems of today, as ranked in the lecture, will rank in 100 years?
Christianity
Atheist
Islam
Hindu
Buddhism
Judaism
Taoism
Shinto
Jainism
Scientology

Good, but you might add why you feel that way.

H4. Describe what you think was the greatest contribution to the world by classical India or China.
I think that the greatest contribution to the world was paper. Without paper we would have no widespread information. It would be very hard to have currency, so we would be in the constant state of trading goods. The world would also be much less knowledgeable because it would be very hard to write books without paper. Also without paper there would be no World History course, since development of computers and the internet would have relied on paper at some point.